Monday, August 28, 2017

I just released my fourth fantasy novel, The Dark Backward, as a Kindle e-book on Amazon (sorry, no print yet) for 99 cents. I like to call my novels the fantasy novels that Jane Austen would have written if she had lived long enough to read Tolkein and Rowling (and maybe Lovecraft, as well). I try to combine period detail (the 17th/18th centuries) with classic fantasy often verging on the pulp--I love stories of enchanted books, bottomless chests, and wizards from other worlds and dimensions. Silly stuff, but if you treat it properly--and aren't afraid to laugh at yourself--it sort of works. Maybe?

Though this is my fourth novel, it's not the fourth in a series, but is set in the same world as my other three books, and shares one of the main characters--the wise, yet duplicious sorcerer, Hildigrim Blackbeard, whose ambitions always get the best of him (and those who trust him). It's a loose sequel to my first book, The Count of the Living Death, as it showcases the two main characters, Leopold and Mary, much later in life, though you certainly don't need to read the earlier book to read or appreciate this one.

Remember that even if you don't have a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle reading app for your phone or computer. If you read it, please leave a review, even the most cursory one, since the more reviews, the more traction my novel gets. Thanks for checking it out!

Sunday, August 27, 2017

When I first started
teaching in 2000, I didn’t have the foggiest idea how to do the very thing I
was being paid to do: teach college-level writing. It was my first year of
graduate school, and as part of my assistantship, I had to teach two classes a
semester, for which I would be paid a small stipend—enough to keep me alive
until next semester. Being ambitious and curious, I opted to teach two sections
of non-native composition, meaning the students had all come from other
countries (in this university, mostly South America and the Middle East) and
had a fair command of the language. I vividly recall the first day of
teaching...once I mustered up the strength to ascend the stairs to the third
floor and actually enter the classroom, I met a sea of faces who stared back at
me with equal trepidation. Somehow, I muddled through, reading the syllabus,
taking roll, offering some insights for how to do well in the course. By the
time it ended, I felt elated, relieved, confused, excited; after all, now I was
a teacher! Or was I?

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Fantasy literature uses
the word “saga” quite liberally, as if any story with wizards and battles qualifies.
Yet sagas refer properly to the old Icelandic sagas, a vast collection of
histories, tales, and legends dutifully recorded by Medieval scholars and
poets. Though most of these writers saw themselves as writing factual accounts
of the heroic past, they were quite willing to stretch the truth when
necessary; thus the legendary King Harald of Norway becomes almost eight feet tall, and can rush into
a battle without shield or armor and hack down a horde of foes unscathed. It
certainly sounds better than what must have been the still remarkable, but far
more mundane reality. Not surprisingly, given the fuzzy distinction between
truth and reality, Icelandic sagas touch on a number of modern genres: history,
fantasy, romance, folklore, even horror—it’s all here, written in succinct yet
extremely colorful language.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

In Defoe’s Robinson
Crusoe (1719), often considered the first English novel (as we now define
the term), the book opens with the words “I was born in the Year 1632, in the
City of York, of a good Family...” and ends some two-hundred pages later
without a single chapter break or exchange of dialogue. Though one of the most
influential books written in English, everything about it now seems hopelessly
old-fashioned and a tedious chore for the modern reader (weaned on YA lit,
especially) to wade through. For this reason it appears less and less
frequently on college syllabi, and not at all in the high school classroom, where
it was once enjoyed a popularity similar to—and perhaps even rivaling—Harry
Potter.

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About Me

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Languages at East Central University. I teach courses in composition, British literature, poetry, Humanities, and comic books. I earned my BA and MA from the University of Tulsa, and my PhD from Miami University in Ohio. I also write novels, short stories, and articles on literature and teaching.